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22 more days to the PPG’s 2nd anniversary in Govt!
If me was Brian Lara, I woulda pre-action protocol myself at this stage and remove my name from the Cancer Centre and Tarouba stadium because things only going to get nastier and it’s his name that going to suffer and get muddied every single time. The government still trying to keep the lid on the over-radiation scandal of patients at the Cancer Centre named after you, and an Independent Senator has labelled it “one of the greatest scandals in medical history”. Trust me Brian, you don’t want your name continually mixed up with either of these structures/institutions…get out!

The AG smelling the 2-year anniversary coming up too and the coalition need legitimate things to celebrate…because how it go look that since The Keith bring that Motion of No Confidence that they in a constant tailspin….credit cards, Cheryl Miller, police brutality, escalating murder rate, crimes against women and children, 21st century non-policing, Vidwattie….Vidwattie….Anand hiring his nephew….Marlene Coudray….Vidwattie…Devant hiring Dookeran cousin….Jack winning internal elections….Vidwattie…Kamla carrying her nephew and niece to India and possibly the public paid for that too….nationwide protests in villages….Vidwattie…..TCL strike…..did I mention Kamla’s sister Vidwattie Newton having access to public funds without being an employee of the state?

Right, so in light of the many fiascos that plagues this government and by proxy our nation daily, the government had to try and appear to be doing something…how else to justify the government being a success and stronger than ever 2 years later than….bringing a civil case against Calder Hart? Now let me tell you why after reading the story this immediately became a non-issue for me….the case the state is bringing against Hart hinges on two crucial issues….mismanagement of public funds when it came to building the BC Lara Stadium (aka the Billion Dollar Tsunami Shelter) and the Legal Towers…..and failure to declare family ties….so, now, the Pantomime going to ask all yuh, when last anybody in this country pay a fine or make a jail for bad spending public money or for not declaring that the business they offering a tender to is really them and their family own? Anybody? study all yuh head good? If we used to jail people for bad spending and mismanaging people’s money then Duprey, Monteil and Bhoe Tewarie woulda make ah jail by now….so would Ish Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson for what went on with the billion dollar airport….And….when last was it wrong in this government for you and your family to benefit from government contracts?

Folks, since 2010 Prakash Ramadhar and Vernon de Lima wave Sherrine Hart birth paper and imply that they have real info on Calder Hart….info that would prove he and Manning conspire to abuse and misuse UDECOTT funds…..and I waited patiently and eagerly for the information that would prove to me that Manning’s squandermania (remember that buzz word) would be proven beyond a doubt and I’d be able to wine back on PNM cronies…..to date ah cyah even do like Lyndira Ouditt and Timothy Hamel-Smith and take privileges and wine on Faris Al Rawi (sighhhh)!!! It is now 23 months later and the best this govt can come up with is a weak civil case that their supporters will slaver over in the hopes that the rest of the country will see that they performing! This civil case going to draw out….watch and see…..I giving it 15 years before it get thrown out for lack of evidence. And as for the criminal case the AG says the state is building with Malaysian authorities, keep your eyes and ears out for it….see if you hear anything about it again by the end of the year. If 23 months later they now dealing with it…you don’t think Hart had more than enough time to clean up anything that might be laying around to incriminate him? Study all yuh head good nah?

This government’s failure to adequately deal with the Calder Hart bogey, one of the biggest jumbies they waved for the people in May 2010 going to haunt them…watch and see.

And as per Hart’s link to his wife Sherrine and Sunway Construction…..look how much government minister have family who own companies that getting government contract….on the basis of its prevalence under this regime it not illegal at all….Hart simply practising Good Family Values KPB style!

For me, the biggest story in today’s papers is not Calder Hart, or Faris al Rawi, or the union threat to destabilise the coalition or Anil Roberts behaving like a disrespectful lout to his political leader…..rather it is a story almost buried in the Guardian that synopsising the Auditor General’s Report for 2011.

Folks read this report closely, because it is listing a number discrepancies in several ministries such as:

The Ministry of Education overpaying on 931 occasions to the tune of $8.5m…..so after the first 5 times they couldn’t get it right? And according to the report this rend of overpaying happening since under Manning’s regime….over $41 million from 2005 – 2011….Hazel, Esthe and Tim, comments please? The report also indicated a disturbing increase in the number of overpayments in the past year….whereas in 2010 there were 643 cases in 2011 it rose to 5280 times the Ministry over paid….that is more than a 100% increase. What Tim really doing with the Min of Ed budget?

In the Office of the Prime Minister (listed as Vidwattie Newton’s address for check collection and where the PM works…it is alleged) “signed formal service agreements were not produced for 50 per cent of the sample of contract officers. As a result, terms and conditions of employment for these officers were not determined, the report stated.” I hope all yuh reading!

In the ministry of Finance (Dooks ministry, eh), “the required cabinet minute approving posts were not seen for six people. Formal contracts were not produced for 31 of the 32 contract employees in the sample selected.”

In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “contracts were not produced for audit for two contractors for refurbishment works in which expenditure totalled $1.9 million.”

In the Ministry of Works, “only one of the 30 Overpayment Registers from the Pay Sections was produced for audit examination and therefore the number of cases of overpayments for the year in this sector, and other details could not have been verified”

from a sample of 12 contract officers at Parliament, signed contract agreements were not seen for 11, the report stated. Approved terms and conditions were not seen for seven officers. Approval from the Speaker of the House of Representatives was not seen for one officer. The report noted 44 cases of theft and losses of state property in 2011 totalling $1.3 million

Listen, is best all yuh go and read the full story and maybe find a copy of the Auditor General’s report, because what this pointing to is gross incompetence, breaches of protocol and mismanagement of public funds in at least 5 ministries…And this has led to wastage of public monies and if that is not Squandermania then I don’t know what is!

Listen, all yuh think police does be smoking the contents of the evidence room?

Explain to me how after 6 months all yuh head in town to arrest Ian Alleyne…I saw the handcuffs, doh try to fool me….and all yuh aint walk with the warrant? No wonder Om and Ian buss style on all yuh so!

And yes, I know you could arrest without a warrant…but come nah man…is 6 months all yuh planning this thing!

That being said, Ian Alleyne, Crime Watch and TV6 are Charged for the toro toro (aka bullshit) they did to that child last year on the programme.

Yesterday, whole day PNM Abroad was frothing on its wall talking about Alleyne being the people’s champion….cause they want the tune again, nah….and people’s champion or not (I really not getting into that argument) we have to agree that if Ian Alleyne breached the law, he shouldn’t be above it. To justify Alleyne’s abuse of the law is to set a bad precedent. Now, for all intents and purposes, what is clearly a legal matter has been made into a political issue….Alleyne, all of a sudden has become the PNM poster boy for Govt abuse….so many more scary instances of abuse occurring daily, and the issue that get PNM People riled up yesterday is Alleyne’s roughing up by the police? I seriously have to wonder where people’s heads are at. The Govt quietly changed the quorum of the Joint Select Committee this week, and now allowing themselves carte blanche when it comes to procurement issues…and the thing that have PNM Abroad panties in a bunch is Ian Alleyne….a man who admitted to reaching the law? Listen…UNC financiers everywhere must be busting their guts laughing over this one!

As per whether Ian’s treatment at the hands of the police was necessary….probably not…maybe it was too excessive…I certainly think so….

I am also happy to see that TV6 didn’t escape unschathed. You were part of the broadcasting process…clean up your acts…both of you.

While the show highlights criminal activity in the country and certainly depicts Alleyne as doing a better job than police there are a few changes I’d like to see:

less gore and dead bodies during a time children watching tv.

less of Alleyne in the middle of the crime scene

better production and editing

less showcasing of specific police officers.

statistics on how many of Ian’s arrests actually led to convictions!

Ian show beginning to look like Sgt Alexander’s PR plan! Keep up whatever good work you might be doing Ian…..and keep improving the pappyshow into a proper show!

Pres Sando was literally on fire yesterday…and it had nothing to do with past alumni Patrick Manning, Basdeo Panday, Machel Montano or Kes Dieffenthaler…..or did it? Paying for past sins, Pres?????

Part of the Marianne Bridge in Blanchisseuse get tief! Gypsy want scrap iron industry to be scrapped….I disagree, keep it and regulate…ppl resembling Sandy who don’t bunker diesel deserve to have their business and if the government had returned the confiscated scrap iron at the end of the SoE, maybe so much bridge wouldn’t be disappearing! Do SoE really aint like SoE, eh!

The man accused of running the Claxton bay Paedo Ring didn’t make it to court yesterday…..neither did the magistrate. We keeping an eye on this case folks….

Rumour has it Devant say is only common sense needed to run Caribbean Airlines…everybody pounding he choice of Winston Dookeran cousin, Rabindra Moonan, as chairman….Well boy Devant, something tells me that you going and choke on them words soon. We watching!

I beginning to think DCP Mervyn Richardson is the opening act at Barnum and Bailey’s Circus….imagine the database of sex offenders NOW going to be made available to law enforcement officers! So, pardon me, who had access to this list before? I mean seriously? I was actually hoping that the list of charged offenders was now going to be made available to the public (although I was unclear about the legal ramifications for it), but to announce that law enforcement officers going to have access to it begs the questions why didn’t they have it all along? You mean police working in communities and don’t know who and whom have prior records????? What that story isn’t saying is far too disturbing.

I see Marabella residents have Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan on blast. I find that protest reeks of a political performance…all they missing is black costumes, white face and a tableaux vivant! It’s worth noting that some of the “angry residents” yesterday are actually friends of people at the San Fernando regional corporation…and if you didn’t know, there is tension between Mayor Marlene and MP Carolyn….make of that what you will…more than the pestle in the mortar with this one!

Our Glib COP, Dwayne, has assured areas with high criminal activity that more patrols will be replacing police posts…. Now it have two bacchanal with that….last night on the news Sgt Wayne MyStar, in giving his daily briefing, was pointing out how much ammunition and guns had been seized to date despite the LACK OF POLICE VEHICLES….so, I guess is foot patrols Gibbs referring to? And the second bacchanal is this….why weren’t the mobile units IMMEDIATELY replaced with patrols? Why remove one and not implement the other? Why the lull? Why the windows of opportunity for criminals to operate in? Is this the Crime Plan????
Why does 21st Century Policing have me so uneasy?????

Don Quixote Volney stands by his comments….he says the media too slack…and he have all the information at hand to make the claims he making…..Kamla, all yuh really know how to pick them, oui!

After grandcharging, Sat relents and allows Sita back at the school…. Ironically, head of the PTA, Mootoo, complaining that no one thinking of the children. And you have to stop and ask yourself…if there is a court order, that has blocked the transfer and basically means Sita has to remain as principal of the school for now…who being more foolish and obstructionist? Not the Maha Sabha Education Board? Who going to the media with press releases everytime? Sita or Sat? I am wondering if the two main men on this board even see how dumb they look everytime they decide to buck the legal system? Why does Sat think the laws don’t apply to him? What he partners Devant and Tim have to say on this boy? Or are they in support of his behaviour?

Aaliyah Johnson’s killer has been charged and spent the night in Golden Grove…..this story tragic from beginning to end. There is nothing to feel triumphant about in having caught her killer.

The Dangerous Dogs Act going to be enforced…12 years later….I should have hope then, that Verna will actually table the Children’s Bill by 2015!

Roget has struck another blow for the TCL Strike….no extra time for lawmen on the TCL purse. This of course means increased tensions at the strike site. And if you haven’t been paying attention, this strike is affecting not just the local construction industry, but the region as well. A little bit again and Roget going to have this Govt by the balls. And if those strikers succeed in getting what they want, it’ll be a might blow to this govt. Don’t watch this strike slight at all. Two things likely to happen here…..a further crippling of the PP Govt….and the making of Roget into a messiah figure…keep an eye on it.

Keep an eye too on all the petty crimes that are occurring….pensioners being beaten to death for $3000.00. Fashion designers being robbed of small amounts of cash and electronic items for a quick sale on the black market. The petty crime toll is edging back up…but no one announces that in the paper…is just who feels it knows it. So, those of us whose cars will be stolen, cell phones, laptops, handbags, will wonder where is the crime plan? Where’s the 21st Century Policing? How is it helping us….and then when we turn around and realise gang warfare still rampant as ever, only weed getting seized, but never any cocaine…..and no white collar criminal is ever held accountable we will become more and more depressed, more and more frustrated, more and more fed up of watching Kamla and her Family Values team gorge themselves on the public purse.

Jack Warner just got appointed to the National Security Council, so whether you are aware of it or not, we are officially a country of April Fools. But to the victor (of the UNC Internal Elections goes the spoils). Jack is probably the only performing minister in Kamla’s government these days and since crime continues to plague her and us maybe the Minister of everything will be able to help….when he done solve we crime problem is best she give him Dookeran portfolio too.

My mother has this saying she uses when a person is unwittingly showing his or her true colours: “ahhhhh (insert name) yuh petticoat showing!”

This government has been having wardrobe malfunctions from it’s first month in office and it continues. Is like they need a seamstress. But the wardrobe malfunctions have been glaring this week and I want to discuss a few of them.

Gimme Ah Diesel Riddim to start….

If you missed the PM crudely waving 2 cannisters of oil and announcing that God is a Trini, then surely you heard the non-stop radio ads announcing the Jubiliee Discovery by Petrotrin all day Friday and Saturday….or maybe you managed to miss Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial on CNC3 Friday evening announce that we have an oil boom. It’s not uncommon for oil to be found off our shores…it’s how we’ve been making a living in Trinidad and Tobago for about a century. But last Thursday our leader of Government revealed just how desperate she is to give Trinbagonians hope in their economic future as well as to distract them from the chaos that is her government.

Keep in mind that this is a government that has promised economy diversification in their 7 Pillars of Development Plan, aka 2010 Manifesto. To date we have seen few signs of any real thrust at diversification…and we all know why, to diversify, you need to take the self same oil money and invest it into other areas…..but if that oil money being poured into projects to line the pockets of friends and cronies and to fund projects that are normally funded off international loans, then you aint have too much $$$$ remaining to invest, eh?

The PM barely rest down the cannisters before objections to her claim began. The Keith exposed her tactics as naked politics, and Colm Imbert, a man I often find annoying, gave a pretty comprehensive explanation as to why he’s not impressed by the oil find. Couple Imbert’s comments with David Renwick’s article about our plummeting crude production situation and the comments from other energy industry heads about the PM jumping the gun on the oil find…not boom Ms Ramdial… and you’ll realise that Kamla is beyond desperate these days. The economy is stagnant. Add that to the TCL strike, on the heels of a 107-day SoE that crippled several industries and markets, and a less than stellar Carnival (don’t let CAL figures about arrivals distract you, Port of Spain’s streets were less crowded this year) and right now, people aren’t seeing any blue skies. So, being the spin and PR machine that they are, the Govt decided to blow the current oil find out of proportion and make it appear as if we turning the bend and soon everyone will be swimming in dollars again. It is economist Dhaneshwar Mahabir who tore Kamla’s claims down to its brass tacks when he announced that 48 million barrels represents about $150m in revenue….when you place that against our annual budget of $50bn….it’s not even a drop in the bucket. When you consider that almost $100m was spent just on Carnival….study yuh head good and ask how many members of the group Kamla keeps calling the “common man” going to really benefit from that oil find. Smoke and Mirrors folks….nothing to see here! We find oil…the solution to every problem….meanwhile the economy, that depending on this plummeting oil production still waiting to be diversified. But when PR music inside yuh brain…you feel no pain. Put yuh canister in the air and wave like yuh mad!

San Fernando Mayor Marlene Coudray

Gyal Bend Over….

This gyal, she wukking up ah storm

Wining in ah circle, watch how she perform

She leave COP and jump to UNC

Become deputy leader

got Prakash on he knees!

Marlene Coudray has without a doubt created a far bigger storm than this tea cup partnership can contain. Like many others, when Marlene jumped ship…or was poached…depending on how you want to look at it, I was unperturbed. I live through Rupert Griffith and Vincent Lasse crossing the floor, Marlene Coudray go stun me?

But is when COP Leader Prakash Ramadhar started to zest up he self and talk about poaching, and wanting back the mayorship whose “allocation” was given to him that I start to pause and check out the thing. It seems that Local Govt Politics has its own morality as well. at first I didn’t understand why Ramadhar felt it was his right to choose the mayor until I realised that in local government elections it’s the party with the most seats that consults with the councillors and other pertinent bodies to select a mayor. And since is a coalition government we have, and not a coalition party, the Fyzabad Accord (which beginning to sound like a kaiso) apparently delineated which parties within the coalition would get to determine which mayorships went to whom. So the COP got Arima and San Fernando as part of their historic 2010 scramble for Trinidad and Tobago. What startled me was that these arrangements were ironed out since May 2010, and Local Government Elections happened in July of 2010…so these parties were very confident of victory.

On the basis of this understanding, I felt that Prakash was well within his right to determine who is the mayor of Sando. The PP can’t determine it because it isn’t a party….but the COP and UNC are…and the COP was told Sando was under it’s remit. So, then, you ask yourself, what’s the problem? Well no one wants to say…least of all Winston Dookeran who living up to the nickname Duck and Run these days because he won’t answer any question you pose to him about the government or his party, the COP, straight……maybe that is the price you pay if you have your eyes on higher office. What is clear though is that Coudray’s claims that the COP didn’t elect/appoint/nominate her might have some truth to it, since a recent interview with businesswoman Daphne Bartlett indicates that the current leader of the COP may be misleading the country into believing that Coudray had been their pick. There is talk that Marlene wasn’t really the COP pick, that it was instead a prominent doctor from South Trinidad. There is talk that the COP was forced to choose Coudray. There is talk that Coudray is tipped to run in the expected by-election for San Fernando East….earlier this week there was talk that the PM would give in to Ramadhar’s request, give him the mayorship, and give Coudray the position of Vice-President of the Senate…thereby bussing Lyndira Oudit’s throat. There has been much talk….so much talk that the heads of the coalition government talked for 5 hours on Friday evening and the COP executive, MPs etc are meeting at 9 am this morning to talk some more….and all of this becauase Marlene Coudray exercised her right to change her political mind!

In the last 22 months we have been bombarded with non-stop examples of how strong this political panchayat is. But it is during this week that the seams, cracks and petticoat hemlines began to show themselves to the rest of the country. An article in the Trinidad Express this week had top COP officials lamenting that the party was being destroyed from day one of the coalition government. Now, is time to ask yourselves a few questions. If the UNC was calling the shots from day one, or engaging in abusive behaviour, why get into political bed with them? Why wait so long to speak out on the issues within the party? Is it a case of a battered woman taking and taking and cyah take no more? Or is it a case of protecting your political privileges now because is not just your dignity that being taken away, is your money too?

The COP as a political entity has been a vast disappointment to its membership. Anyone can tell you that they were the Trojan Horse (Virus) in which the UNC came to power. All non-unc voters stained their fingers for the PP because they felt that the COP would provide a buffer to the UNC, a party that since it’s 1995-2000 term has been seen as corrupt, nepotistic and ethnocentric. And the current behaviour of many members of the party have established that the behaviour hasn’t changed. But, where the COP should have jumped in to provide checks and balances and be the voice of the people who voted them in and reflect their principles, the COP’s leaders and members have remained either sickeningly silent or eager to please in a psychophant way. Remember that it is Prakash Ramadhar who defended Reshmi Ramnarine’s appointment as the SIA head…then back pedal and say he don’t know the woman. The COP also supported the SoE wholeheartedly, even though within their ranks they knew it was a bad idea that would end disastrously. But on the evening that the SoE was announced Prakash was sitting at the Pink Palace in Phillipines lending support. The COP recently helped defeat the Motion of No Confidence against the PM…and to date I have heard no comments from the COP about the PM’s abuse of the official state residence, her use of her sister as a travel assistant, her maintenance of not one, but two residences as PM, the abuse of the govt travel card by 2 Govt Ministers and a whole host of other issues. Instead Ramadhar has joined the behaviour of the UNC in Parliament, calling the Opposition Leader names like corbeaux while delivering speeches…and I had to think et tu Prakash?

When the COP talks about country first politics, which country are they referring too? Is is some imaginary space that I don’t know about? Their entire approach to politics from day one has been just as selfish and abusive of the country, as the UNC’s has been abusive of them. They have bowed, scraped and fought to remain in the powers of corridor not to help the country but to be able to help themselves. This party has had numerous opportunities to retain its integrity and actually serve the interests of the people that voted it in to power. It’s 22 months and 8 days of governance by this PP government and the first time the COP took a firm stance on an issue was when the party felt it was going to lose the Mayorship of San Fernando….and when you understand how local government projects run and the kind of money it can generate, you will realise that is not the political position they vex about so much as the economic and political largesse that they stand to lose once this mayorship is out of their hands…in short funding and contracts folks…yes…it boils down to $$$$$ and cents!

If Kamla backs down and gives Prakash what he wants, the COP may win a political battle, but for me, the mere fact that this is what finally galvanised Ramadhar into action shows me precisely where his mind is at…on the money…the ministerial positions…the power.

If Kamla doesn’t back down, then this is the COP’s last opportunity to salvage the little that might be left of its reputation with its core supporters. Make a stand, and position yourselves in Parliament in a way that you can effect real change when it comes to laws and legislation….and Prakash while you at it..can you and Vernon provide some real evidence to arrest Calder Hart….it looking bad that all all yuh produce since Jan/Feb 2010 is Sherine Hart’s birthpaper….where the evidence all yuh promise? Because like Anand Ramlogan can’t do the work that we giving him millions of dollars to do.

Leader of Buffonery in Parliament

Before I run off, there is one more little issue I want to raise….Roodal Moonilal. As Leader of Government Business he is a failure. I have taken to thinking of him as Leader of Buffoonery in the Parliament. At first I thought Moonilal was just overeager and underinformed…but I realise now that Moonilal’s modus operandi is to actually use the cover of parliament to slander, libel and attack with impunity. The latest incident is his accusing Noel Garcia of abusing a Govt Travel Card and owing the govt $.5m dollars. Interestingly enough the Hansard Records of late 2010 show that Moonilal had raised the issue 2 years ago, within its proper context…as a loan from the HDC and had asked where the payments were. Two years later, under pressure because not one, but at least 2 ministers were caught abusing the public purse Moonilal used information he had at hand and misrepresented it in Parliament. Suddenly the loan Garcia was approved for from the HDC board (HDC is a bank?) becomes a government travel card. The travel card’s limit is US$10,000. So how would Garcia have been able to spend $.5m????? And let’s for the sake of argument say it happened…back in 2007….the new government aint do anything about it yet after 22 months in government? It was so obvious that Moonilal was using his parliamentary privilege to take potshots at a private citizen who was not in a position to immediately defend himself….and for that Moonilal you are NASTY! Because you haven’t even had the good grace to come out and apologise. And this is recurrent behaviour with you…I haven’t forgotten how you lied on the people of Beetham and how you blamed diesel bunkering activities on them and never came back to correct your lies. Is this what the Parliament has come to? A place where we lie on citizens and attempt to pass faulty laws?

Then is best we shut down parliament and open up a theatre of the absurd!

This govt has shown in the past week that it is self-serving, dishonest, abusive, nepotistic….and led by a “special needs” woman who will go to any end to fool the people, fool the people, fool the people! Somebody dress tail cock up!

But my question now is, if the allegations weren’t true, why didn’t Manning out them on the campaign hustings in 2010?
Why didn’t Hart himself come forward and call the then Opposition liars….and what does Prakash Ramadhar and Vernon de Lima have to say in light of these revelations because they were the pair that spearheaded that “sting operation” of documentation linking Calder and Sherrine Hart to Sunway?

I think the general picture of the Prime Minister living a lavish lifestyle and being an abuser of the public purse is pretty well established now. Many would say that she is merely following in Patrick Manning’s footsteps….or maybe this is an example of good family values….who knows.

Kamla’s neighbours, who we met removing a razor wire fence from their property a few weeks ago, have now put their home up for sale as they have found living next to the PM unbearable. The allegations of parties all weekend and sometimes during the week, the constant noise of helicopters hovering overhead, along with aesthetic issues were all listed.

The last bit of news I will leave you with is the comment from COP chairman that the People Partnership Govt is fragile. I’d much have preferred to hear this come from Ramadhar’s mouth than Toney’s. Too often Ramadhar is slow to speak or reluctant to comment on the more pressing and glaring issues in this party. Let’s hope that he steps up soon enough so that his party membership know what is what….or is this another red herring announcement?

Voters not finding their names on the list even though some of them were lifetime members, and an extremely low voter turn out, that not even UNC Elections Chairman Khemchan Ramdath wants to comment on. According to Sampson Nanton, of CNC 3, who was at the Rienzi Complex last night, UNC voter turn out was approximately 13,000; this is from a list of 81,000 registered voters. When questioned about the low turnout, Ramdath quickly corrected Nanton and said he “feel” the number is actually closer to 20,000. That didn’t make it better…this is a party that swept to victory in 2010 with hundreds of thousands of people voting for it….it’s registered list of voters is 81,000 and barely 20% of its electorate turned out to vote….Are the party members disentchanted? Is it that they didn’t know yesterday was the Internal Elections? That can’t be…because Herbert Volney text me twice and people from Jack Warner’s camp was actually making phone calls…even to PNM members, to come out an vote. So what, pray tell, accounts for the low voter turn out yesterday. And how can the PM claim that yesterday’s elections shows democracy when there were all of these flaws and discrepancies?

Is she lying? Being ironic? Or being disingenuous?

I can’t begin to tell you the concerns this raises for me with the 2015 General Elections about voter turn-out, as well as the transparency of voting lists. Why is it that in an election process that described itself as open, free and fair, so many people couldn’t have access to the voting lists? The UNC really needs to check itself, the party’s name has become synonymous with corruption, deceit, malpractice, litigation and lots of other generally nasty things. And considering that a significant sector of this country regards the party as the “Indian” party and representative of the “Indian” demographic, by proxy, people are going to associate the party’s negative image with its supporters….lemme break it down: If the party corrupt, then its supporters corrupt…..and you know how does generalise in Trinidad and Tobago…If people saying the supporters corrupt it will soon be “all indians corrupt”. Watch yourself UNC, you are doing a disservice to your supporters with your questionable activities.

Well, everybody know Marlene Coudray removed herself from the COP this week….a self-ejection that had the politics hot. Word is this morning that new comer Coudray beat Fuad “Card” Khan for the position of 3rd deputy political leader in the UNC internal elections. But that aint even the juiciest piece of Marlene’s story….after all that bluster and grand charge from Joseph Toney and Prakash Ramadhar this week; and all the comments about how the “poaching” of party members by the UNC is a dangerous thing etc…and Marlene taunting Prakash to say she is not an egg, she can’t be poached (10 pts to Marlene with that inaccurate response to a word whose meaning she unclear on)…is to wake up this morning and find out that is more than the pestle in the mortar and that COP’s relationship with Marlene Coudray very complicated and shaky since 2010.

So it appears that Marlene knew precisely what she meant when she told journalists earlier this week that she stopped being an active COP member almost two years now. And Prakash….I don’t need to tell you that the current story that bubbling up from through the cracks of your party’s information channels smelling bad!

It’s been another week of protests in south Trinidad, from Claxton Bay to Mayaro. we had that sterling bit of behaviour from MP Winston Gypsy Peters this week that indicated only too well the People’s Panchayat govt’s position on political patrimony…we only here to serve our people….not PNM people…..the PM, as ever, was mum on Gypsy’s outburst. Her refusal to address any controversial issue head on has become my favourite feature of female leadership. Because whenever I hear any of the feminists defending her cry for “special needs” as a female PM, I think yes, of course….sealant for her lips to avoid explanation or accountability for any and all matters of state that require actual leadership!

But the biggest story this week has to be Squandermania inna 4D….aka Family Values…aka the PM the big spender and minder of her entire family on the State’s pocket.

This week several stories made it’s way to the surface:

It is alleged that Kamla used the Govt Visa Travel card to pay for her Machel Monday pumped up kicks..aka $5000 Louis Vs.

It is alleged that Kamla pays almost $2000 daily to have her hair done. It is also alleged that she fired Bally as her hair dresser mere weeks ago because he had become too pricey and has instead hired a Filipino woman to dress her hair. This hair dresser is housed in a hotel at the State’s expense. Mind you, the PM’s official residence has a hair dressing salon in it….why doesn’t the PM just use her hair dresser there? Could it be she doesn’t actually live there?

It is printed in the newspaper, that Kamla’s sister Vidwattie Newton, who she swears she pays out of her own pocket, received a check from the govt in 2010 that Nicole Dyer is now claiming is a per diem for travelling with her sister on some trip or the other. The PNM has promised to keep the heat on the matter.

It is alleged that Vidwattie Newton, 2 sons and 1 other nephew live at the PM’s official residence while the PM herself lives at her private home in Phillipines.

It has been stated categorically by Minister of Foreign Affairs, sew…Suruj Rambachan that the PM’s use of state funds to look after her family, and her use of not one, but two residences, is actually as a result of values she acquired from growing up in an extended family and therefore, we should be happy, and stop criticising the PM because in practising nepotism and abuse of state funds the PM is in fact an exemplar of good family values.

This PM has surpassed Patrick Manning for her open abuse of public funds. To date the lavishness of the PM’s official residence is what can be pinned on Manning…and his defence is a simple one…it belongs to the State. How does the Kamla justify leaving her family to live at the state’s expense and then having taxpayers support the upkeep, security and maintenance of a second home? And all of this money is being squandered during harsh economic times….so the the average Trinbagonian who ketching dey arse to make ends meet, gets to hear about the PM and her friends and family, living it up!

Kamla has gone quickly from being a breath of fresh air, and symbol of new politics to smelling like something decayed and stale. She is colonial politics dressed up in expensive clothes, hair and make-up and made to look modern. But the citizens know the difference….that’s what accounts for the low voter turnout even from her support base and the daily criticism from her objectors and opposition.

And in the manner of all foolish leaders in this country Kamla has now become a joke to be parodied around the internet in various jokes and memes….and at this rate….she’s going to be a historical footnote in our political history come 2015.

In other news, the murder toll is now 86 murders for the year thus far. TSTT CEO resigns under protests and West Indies beating Australia in One Day games…it could only be 2012 folks.

So the talk is that Marlene Coudray say in a UNC forum last night that she is not an egg….she can’t be poached…..she knows who her leader is….does Prakash know who his leader is??????
Them’s fighting words boy!

Prakash….response?

Ummm, Marlene, when people talked about poaching, they meant illegal hunting, not cooking….just saying….I’m sure the UNC has gotten a gem of a political mind in you.

So the PM under heat for the house in La Fantaisie. Anybody remember that she had condemned the house? Called it the Prime Ministerial Palace and vowed that she would never live there??????
Well it seems like this may be the one promise the PM has kept from her 2010 campaign….it is alleged that the PM lives in South Trinidad, while the State has been housing and feeding and transporting the PM’s sister and three of her nephews.
Yesterday the PNM’s right wing defender Marlene McDonald get a little touch of the political accusations football and make a dash down the flank, accusing the PM of abusing State resources once again. The PM seemed caught with her pants down when reporters questioned her. She denied that they were driving PM1. Which is ironic since radio personality Tony Lee of i95.5 reported seeing Ms Newton exiting PM1 in the area of the NAPA building on Carnival Monday morning….and he admits he never saw anyone else exit the car….maybe he shoulda walk slower…because I feel he just missed the PM…she was there too…she really was…wasn’t she? Kamla wouldn’t lie about abusing state property would she? She did admit that her sister and family either visit or stay at the PM’s official residence from time to time. What does from time to time mean? Are we likely to hear in a couple days or weeks that in fact the reports we are hearing have more than a grain of truth to them and that the PM is indeed abusing state property? Will we hear too that the Govt Travel Card has been abused by the PM also?

Now, if the PNM follows its regular playbook, then they giving the PM rope with which to hang herself. On every occasion that this Opposition has laid accusations at the Government’s feet they have had documentary evidence with which to back things up….hark back recently to the Shoppin Toppin card scandal…Roodal Moonilal take plenty basket when The Keith raised the issue in Parliament and implied that the bill was $4000. Moonilal couldn’t scoff hard enough at the figure…ignoring that the real issue here is not the amount of money, but the abuse of the card….he loudly proclaimed to Rowley, that the card done pay off….what is $4000? Days later when the statements were leaked to the media it’s almost $70,000 worth of credit card debt and at least 4 breaches of policy for use of the credit card…..so Kamla, for your sake, I hope the PNM aint have more dirt on you and you aint get ketch in a big fat dirty lie….oh, who am I kidding…I hope they have the dirt….because your constant misspeaking, misstepping, nepotism and corruption has me thoroughly disgusted with your failed brand of female leadership!

Me aint know about you, but Claxton Bay seems like more of a hotspot than Beetham and Laventille these days….between homes being firebombed, maxis transporting workers being attacked and general protest actions, that TCL Strike zone sounding like a war zone. And I fear it will only get worse as strikers become more and more frustrated over the continued running of the cement plant by strike breakers. Keep an eye folks. Unless some settlement happens soon, I am expecting a further outbreak of violence.

By the way, Kamla’s hope that new oil finds are going to boost the economy have been rubbished by Colm Imbert, who has pointed out that the country isn’t likely to see any benefits from it in under three years since exploration is only now underway.

Imbert also implied that the numerous anto-Govt protests in South Trinidad were actually orchestrated by UNC elements. If this is so, then Jack Warner has proven to be more savvy than the man who it is alleged is trying to oust him from the party, Suruj Rambachan. Rambachan claiming these days that he is at Jack’s mercy. Which is too funny and ironic. The other irony is that after all the grand charging and removal of the PURE programme from under Warner, the Prime Minister has returned it to him in order to return peace to the constituencies….one wonders who really advises Kamla and her Deck of Fools. Jack didn’t choose his ministry by accident. If nothing else Jack understands politics…he understands that the most prominent and visible ministry (apart from Housing) is Works and Transport. Jack Warner is probably the only government minister that appears to be working. And while he is involved in 3 Fifa-related scandals, most Trinidadians have justified it to themselves that the scandals Jack involved in are external to the Govt….no one can say his hands have been caught in the State cookie jar…..so in short, Kamla’s most obviously corrupt minister is also her hardest worker….And in interfering with the Ministry of Works she has undermined the appearance of efficiency in her government….if you can’t even fix roads and box drains then what is your purpose????? You know how Trinis like to see drain building, and roads paving….you stop dat too? Yuh Mad??????

Kamla has missed her window of opportunity to get rid of Warner….there was a time when she had the majority of the population behind her, convinced that this Minister was too corrupt to be in government…but in recent months Jack, who has been battling a subtle plot to oust him from the party, appears to have a cleaner nose than most. How can Kamla justify removing Jack now in light of missteps from Shoppin Toppin and Fuad Card? Especially since Jack can point to numerous road projects that have made a difference to citizen’s commuting daily. Sorry, Kamla, opportunity gone…Jack is here to stay….the level of support the rest of the party has to throw behind Ashvani shows that Jack has a stronger following in the party than even I anticipated. So I think that Jack is going to be back after March 24th.

The behaviour of this government in general has serious implications for the rest of the society. When the average citizen is struggling to manage an existence here with poor roads, bad health care, constant traffic, poor customer service, a flawed education system, and so many other facilities and infrastructure missing it has to grind and grate on people’s nerves to see the PM and her ministers abusing state funds and living luxuriously, sharing the wealth with their close friends and family, while little to no economic growth takes place in the country….couple that with the continued criminal activity and murder toll…and well….This Govt HAS FAILED.

In fact, while the No Confidence Motion received a thorough beat down in the Parliament on March 2nd and 3rd….it seems that in the Parliament of public consciousness Rowley’s actions have been far more successful. More and more citizens are fed up with the government, fed up with the almost daily scandals and bussing of new marks. Every morning I get up and turn on my computer to read the newspapers I wonder to myself, what new and disgusting thing going to come from this government today….and they haven’t let me down. The only confidence I have in this government is that it is going to continue to fail.